Seat belt buckles
 

I have a 72 camaro with standard black seat belts. I had them restored. When I got them back I was surprised that they painted the plastic parts of the receptacles . Is that the usual way they are typically restored? I could tell immediately they were painted. They are more of a flat or at the most a medium like 60% gloss. I would appreciate any advice . They did say they would take them back and replace them with non restored buckles. They said they have been doing it that way for 30 years. Thank you

No,they were not painted originally,they were molded in that color plastic.
I've seen others paint them,(Don Krebs & Ssnake-oyl) and know what you speak.You can tell they've been painted a mile away.
Maybe you can scotchbrite the paint off,and then polish out the luster of your original plastic.

Charlie Santorelli, aka Seatbelt Sity, did my original belts for me. That's NOT paint. :biggthumpup:

Bill W

Beware, there is a con-artist/thief in the seatbelt world.

I use a buffing wheel on the plastic covers to bring back some sheen.

I used the Novus 3 step polishing liquid on mine, and they turned out perfect. For the belts, I used TSP. They looked pretty bad, so my plan was to clean them, and then dye using RIT, but after 2-3 wash-rinse cycles with TSP, they looked brand new, no need to dye them.

Labels looked terrible, so I bought repro ones from KevinW, and sewed them on.

I sent mine out to Charlie Santorelli too, Seatbelt Sity. Great guy to work with and did a wonderful job on my deluxe 67 belts.

I would not be happy if I sent mine out for restoration and they came back painted :bs:

Anyone painting plastic buckles and calling it restored is total. :bs:

I did speak with Charlie S / Seatbelt Sity on 8/23/22. As I dont have the Complete Original DeLuxe set, I'll need to use Pieces from another Partial Set to make ONE Set........

Anyway, I'll reread all the above, but thinking I could hand wash and restore some of my components myself....

Charlie does not offer replacement Cloth Date Tags ....Anybody have a lead on who/where supplies these

Looking for advice for soaking and cleaning the Black webbing ?????

Chuck,
I bought date tags from KevinW. I don't know if they are a perfect match to the originals, but they look pretty darn good.